To arms {{ FIRSTNAME }}? A YouTuber says he built a working 3D-printed rocket launcher with consumer electronics for just $97 (R1’650), 99.97% cheaper than the US military pays for theirs (R8M). He’s building a drone-assisted auto-targeting system next. What? 🚀💥

In This Open Letter

SA spends R8.7bn a year covering up a R61.5bn food waste loss – but this venture wants to show a better way…

SA produces 12.7 million tonnes of solid municipal waste (collected from your house) every year, 90% of which goes to landfills, causing 4.1% of national emissions.

But a recent Wits Study found that 27% of that is organic waste (garden and food waste), costing the economy R8.7bn per year to manage. Why? Because a quarter of all the food we produce (and import!) goes to waste – 10.2 million tonnes or R61.5 billion’s worth.

Now, consider also that SA is Africa’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. 

We are under huge pressure to cut emissions, both from our own Carbon Tax laws (scaling up to $30 per tonne by 2030) and the EU’s incoming 22% CBAM carbon taxes on our exports, which will cost the economy billions.

No laughing matter

The problem with organic waste in landfills is that it gets trapped underneath other non-biodegradable stuff, where it rots, emitting methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

And you’ll laugh-cry to know that self-same organic waste is what farmers would use to make compost. But they can’t get to it, so SA farmers import 80% of their fertiliser from overseas, driving up your food prices. 

Now, the Western Cape government is trying to cut 100% of organic waste from landfills by 2027. But Capetonians don’t even have to wait that long…

Turning food waste into compost

Gooi is a subscription-based composting service that treats food waste as a premium logistics problem rather than a chore.

Users simply sign up and pick a subscription, then Gooi drops off a bucket for kitchen scraps. Then, once a week, a legend named Alfred swings by to pick it up and turn it into nutrient-dense compost for local soil.

They seem to be connected to some local food garden innitiatives and it’s only available in Cape Town right now (where the 2027 ban will likely be felt most). But clearly, all of SA needs solutions like these.

We like that Gooi’s take doesn’t take a grand, high-tech overhaul – just a clean bucket and a reliable schedule. But that’s hyper-local, and we wonder what a nationwide or at least regional solution would look like – the market and need are certainly there.

We’re watching this space…

Have your say…

A month after the financial year-end and the SA budget speech, tax is still pretty fresh in most people’s minds. And questions our friends at Finance Isle of Man get quite often at this time concern tax neutrality.

Because the Isle of Man has, of course, 0% corporate tax, VAT compatibility with the UK, strong regulation and a stable legal system that makes it a trusted tax-neutral jurisdiction for companies, investors, trusts, pensions and internationally mobile individuals – a lot of them, South Africans.

Why? Well, tax neutrality is not evading taxes; it’s an approach to tax that is much closer to the original ideas of the “father of economics”, Adam Smith, and great systemisers like David Ricardo (1800s).

The truth about tax today

See, those who originally created the systems our markets and governments use firmly believed that government taxes should not interfere with businesses and people’s economic decisions. It was only from the 1970s onwards that neo-capitalism was born: A movement that, among other things, let governments use taxation as a way to influence people and companies.

Today, it’s common practice for governments to try to control economic outcomes by creating tax laws that might benefit one party and not another, to try to get a specific political outcome.

Only a few places in the world refuse to do that. They are the tax-neutral jurisdictions, like the Isle of Man, where the government only takes the absolute barest minimum necessary to upkeep a healthy, thriving economy and society.

That’s why it has:

✅ 0% corporate tax in a well-regulated, stable jurisdiction
✅ A simpler system that reduces compliance costs and complexity
✅ A structure that supports investment, efficiency and global competitiveness

It’s all about operating in a system designed not to get in the way of growth.

* From our partners. Find all the best service providers for your business in our Founder Stack.

💳 Big Payday. Mastercard is acquiring BVNK, the UK-based B2B stablecoin payments processor started by three South Africans, for a cool R30 billion. Fun fact: They started as a crypto exchange but pivoted. We’d say it paid off.

🚙 GWM’s Local HQ. Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor (GWM) is on the hunt for a home on SA shores, weighing up options between contracting out the assembly of their cars locally or buying an already existing plant. The local car scene is hotting up.

🤖 Uber’s Robotaxi Play Gains Momentum. Uber is partnering with EV manufacturer Rivian to build thousands of robotaxis over the next few years, in a deal reportedly worth $1.25 billion. Very interesting.

🔌 Zuck Calls It Quits. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg is pulling the plug on VR social platform Horizon Worlds, one of the primary parts of the metaverse. The app will continue as a standalone after 15 June, but it remains to be seen what the future holds for the metaverse. Wow.

📄 Still Not Registered? In 2025, Government shut down 15'000 informal businesses for compliance failures. This free guide breaks down exactly when you should register your business in SA and why waiting too long can quietly kill your growth.*

Yesterday, we showed you MyPetFriends’ pet-sitter finder, asking who looks after your pets when you’re away. And most here have great neighbours…

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🧺 I take my pets with me (27%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🦴 I leave out some extra food (0)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 👀 I got a neighbour who keeps an eye out (37%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🐩 Only the best kennels in Cape Town for my Borzoi, Jacinta (23%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🫠 What is “holiday”? (13%)

🧑‍💻 Engineering Lead

🧠 Machine Learning Engineer

🦾 Senior AI Engineer

🤖 AI Product Engineer

🔌 Senior Developer (Back Office)

🚀 Product Engineer

We asked the founder of an SA venture that recently raised their seed round what they are putting the money towards — and the answer might surprise you…

Don’t miss all the extra operator interviews and insights content we do on our social channels — come enjoy the vibez.

👶 Tool to Try: BabyMealBot lets you send any recipe via WhatsApp and returns a baby-safe version tailored to your child’s age and allergies.

🧠 That’s Interesting: We forget up to 70% of what we read every day, but don’t let it bother you too much; you’ll have forgotten that stat by lunchtime 🫠.

🍾 Next Level: Watch real musicians play a song on empty bottles.

🤖 Hack: A simple guide to 6 different types of AI models.

🎸 Wow Site: ChordFret helps you identify guitar chords, scales, alternate names and voicings instantly on a digital fretboard.